Another vs Different vs Other

another vs. other

another and other mean the same thing, except that another is used with a singular noun and other is used with uncountable and plural nouns:

I want to eat another banana.
My friend ate the other bananas.

If we are talking about one of two things of the same type, the word other can be used with the article the or a pronoun (my, you, his, her, etc.) before a singular noun, for example:

I don’t like this pub, let’s go to the other cafe today.
Don’t buy that phone. Buy the other one.
“Is that her younger sister?” “No, that’s his other sister.”


another vs. different

another and different are very similar in meaning and they can often be used interchangeably.

I don’t like this restaurant. I want to go to another restaurant.
I don’t like this restaurant. I want to go to a different restaurant.

However, the word another also means ‘one more’. In this meaning, we cannot use different:
Podemos utilizar “another” como “uno mas”. En este sentido no podemos utilizar “different”:

The lesson hasn’t finished yet. We have another hour.

Another difference is that the word different can be used with a plural noun. The word another cannot be used with a plural noun:

These are different times.

A small subtle difference between another and different, which could be confusing for many learners. The word different means that something is ‘not the same’. The word another means ‘some other’:

 another time. (= some other time)
Let’s meet a different time. (= not the same time that we arranged)

In the above example, the difference is very subtle. It is a question of feeling the most suitable word to use in the context. However, we cannot use another without a following noun. We can only say different:

Jane isn’t like her sister. She’s different.

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